The Masters Review

"The trouble starts when I’m late picking up Maggie. 7:48. How 7:48 is late when she said “seven-ish” is beyond me, but Maggie is unyielding in her interpretation of time, of rules, of me." —Lila-Rose Beckford, "Banshee" mastersreview.com/new-voices-ban…

"While I talked about my husband (adoring), my career (rewarding), and my upcoming trip to Barcelona, he diagrammed the perfect bank robbery on a damp cocktail napkin—no guns." —Pirette McKamey, "Could Be" mastersreview.com/new-voices-cou…

"Pauline’s thoughts wandered among the dead, just a half dozen feet below. If they could speak with the living, what would they say about loneliness?" —J. Stillwell Powers, "Animal Control" Best Emerging Writers 2025 mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

"At first, he gave her presents, not money outright, easing the path to explicit cash through the sort of gifts one would lavish on a real girlfriend." —Katerina Ivanov Prado, "Dog Years" Best Emerging Writers 2025 mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

"Don’t you ever feel as if the world is desperate to explain something in a language too immense for you to grasp?" —Davin Faris, "Featherweight" mastersreview.com/new-voices-fea…

"It was the kind of top you’d wear to a dinner party on the Upper East Side in a pre-war apartment building with high ceilings and built-in bookshelves." —Liz Rose Shulman, "Maybe Someday" Best Emerging Writers 2025 mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

“You only kiss me in the dark.” “I kiss you when I feel like it.” “You kiss me when no one sees us.” —Cristina Chira, "Each Other" Best Emerging Writers 2025 mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

"I loved him, first, in an attic apartment in Eastern Iowa: wood paneled, pitched ceiling, carpeted even in the bathroom." —Amelia Christmas Gramling, "He Said the House Was Haunted" Best Emerging Writers 2025 mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

"I became convinced that Butchie was a malignant, supernatural force. A duppy. A demon. A Rolling Calf." —Stephenjohn Holgate, "Rolling Calf" Best Emerging Writers 2025 mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

"Pixie showed up on our doorstep one morning in June, looking more like a carnival sideshow act than our new renter." —Katie Henken Robinson, "Sermons" Best Emerging Writers 2025 mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

"She called her car “the Clit” because it was small, round-roofed and painted fleshy pink." —Caoimhe McKeogh, "Strawberries, Metal, and Blood" mastersreview.com/new-voices-str…

"Stargazers, something of a next-door neighbor to gardenias from a perfumer’s perspective, have their own similarly narcotic, if slightly less robust, fragrance." —Amy Wilde, "Stargazers" Best Emerging Writers 2025 mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

"The election—not deer. Years passing like dull weekends—deer. Dad refusing therapy and pitching a solo reverse-immigration—not deer." —Sena Moon, "Not Deer" Best Emerging Writers 2025 mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

"Minori’s extraction is tomorrow, and so Sarah has listened to records all day." —Danielle Sherman, "Reach Out" Best Emerging Writers 2025 mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

"As challenging as some of the subject matter in these pieces is, these stories and essays are also filled with light: with humor and hope, with kindness and forgiveness." —Andrew Porter Read Best Emerging Writers 2025 now! mastersreview.com/best-emerging-…

This marvelous story begins with instructions that feel more like a kind of ritual; we soon see how grief and vengeance, when held close for so long, can shape our actions until they become a way of life—or until they do us in. —Guest Judge Jennine Capó Crucet

The grill is full—long green peppers on the right, kebab in the middle, lamb and chicken on the left—when in my peripheral vision I see Bora beckon the foreigner into the kitchen. —Hardy Griffin, "Ahmet Usta" Summer SSA 1st Place! mastersreview.com/summer-short-s…

Under normal conditions, the flower can take a decade to bloom as it stores up tens of thousands of kilowatts of sunlight in its corm. —Thomas Heise, "The Corpse Flowers" Summer Short Story Award 2nd Place mastersreview.com/summer-short-s…

Maybe she’s grown tired of knowing. Maybe it’s not her job to mediate between consenting adults who should be guiding her and not the other way around. —Rachel Vogel, "Will the Real Kim Novak Please Stand Up" Summer SSA 3rd Place! mastersreview.com/summer-ssa-3rd…

You are a vital organ. A mail carrier, that is: the only connector between people far away. —Charlie M. Case, "UNDELIVERANCES" Summer Short Story Award Honorable Mention mastersreview.com/summer-short-s…